Thursday January 16, 2020 ~ LANGFORD [Updated 7 pm January 17, 2020]
by Mary Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
As of today, the City of Langford has not reinstated the occupancy permit for the rental apartment building at 2766 Claude Road, known as Danbrook One. That’s the stark declaration today January 16 from Toronto-based Centurion Property Associates Inc which owns the 11-storey apartment building.
The permit was revoked by the City of Langford on December 20, 2019, saying the building wasn’t structurally sound, following an independent engineering review by WSP Engineering in which it was stated that “certain aspects of the building’s structural design and its as-built structure do not meet engineering requirements and are not sufficient to mitigate risks to life safety of the tenants”.
Back on December 20, the City stated that they had “temporarily revoked the occupancy permit of 2766 Claude Road until the recommended immediate repairs are made”, adding that the occupancy permit would be reinstated once remedial repairs have been completed.
According to Centurion, as of today approximately 60% of the building residents have provided a move-out notice or have already relocated to other properties.
“The building remains classified by the City as unsafe and that it may pose a
threat to the life safety of the occupants and public at large,” says Greg Romundt, President Centurion Property Associates Inc.
“Since we do not, at this time, even have a scope of work that may be required to restore the occupancy permit or a timeline for the completion of repairs, and some residents have not as yet relocated, we have to take the unfortunate step of requiring all remaining residents to vacate their units for their own safety and to remove their belongings from the building as soon as possible,” said Romundt today in a news release.
“We recognize that this is a difficult situation for all of our residents but feel that we need to take this step in the circumstances for the safety of the residents that have chosen to remain,” says Romundt.
Romundt adds: “Centurion is committed to completing any required works and providing residents with the opportunity to return to their homes, if they choose, at their original rents, as soon as possible and to assist affected residents in finding alternate housing through our Customer Care Center if they ask for that assistance.”
“There’s a limit to how much the residents and taxpayers want to fund,” now says Langford Mayor Stew Young on January 17. Before Christmas there were funds used from budget reserve and also redistributed from a GoFundMe pool of donated funds that was largely contributed to by the Langford development community. “We took it very seriously as a city, and we have to. It was a life and safety issue,” says Young.
Temporary shoring has been installed but so far it hasn’t been enough for the city to reinstate an occupancy permit.
“The whole situation is odd,” it was stated by news reporter Sarah Reid on CTV Vancouver Island News on Friday January 17.
“Both parties to the contract are relieved of fulfilling their obligations” is part of the notice given directly to tenants. Centurion did not charge rent to remaining tenants for January 2020 and no rent is owed.
Meanwhile, even though there is no eviction notice, Centurion has provided a list of ‘frequently asked questions’ which makes it clear that tenants should leave immediately:
- What is Centurion doing to assist Residents? Centurion Property Associates is prepared to provide each unit with $1,000 as a gesture of compassionate assistance to help Residents with relocation in addition to what they have received from the City. This assistance will be available to all of the affected residents, including those that have already moved out. Cheques will be made payable to the leaseholder and will be available starting the week of January 20, 2020.
- Will Residents receive their pre-paid rents and deposits? Residents are being reimbursed for their portion of December rent along with any deposits since the occupancy was revoked on December 20, 2019. Centurion did not charge, nor are we seeking rents for January 2020.
- Can Residents return to the property once the occupancy is reinstated and the work is completed? All Residents will be welcome to return to their original unit at their original rent once the work is complete and the occupancy permit has been re-instated for the property. This is not mandatory for the Residents, simply an option.
- What work has been completed at the building so far? The City had made recommendations to put up temporary shoring in place as a back up and that work was carried out immediately on the 23rd and 24th of December 2019.
- What work needs to be done and when do you expect the work to the completed? At this time Centurion has no specific update of when work will be completed. We have collected information from the engineer of record that was provided to our third-party engineers for review and there are no firm timelines yet.
- Who can Residents contact if they have questions or want to relocate to another Centurion property? Centurion’s Customer Care Center is available 7 days a week at 1-888-236-7767 to assist all Residents with questions or needing more information regarding other availabilities in the Langford neighborhood. They can also visit our website at www.cpliving.com for the most current availability.
Apparently about 35 of the 90 units are still occupied. Some tenants are having trouble finding new accommodation due to limitations in the tight rental market for families with children and pets.
Mayor Young says the province should make changes to the inspection process to prevent this from happening again. In December the City was notified by The Engineers and Geoscientists of BC (EGBC) about possible concerns over the building’s safety.
EGBC is the licensing and regulatory body responsible for BC professional engineers and geoscientists but their role is limited to investigation and discipline of their members, not to do any building inspection or declaration of problems with the construction.
All of this back-and-forth without clear responsibility being taken by any party does tend to leave tenants feeling unguided. But with the building owner now officially notifying tenants to leave it should be evident that the building should now be vacated.
==== PREVIOUS ARTICLES by Mary Brooke on this topic:
No set date for safe occupancy at Danbrook One (December 31, 2019)
Danbrook One tenants supported at emergency support centre (December 21, 2019)
Danbrook One tenants supported by GoFundMe campaign (December 21, 2019)
Highrise Apartment building in Langford meets with challenges before Christmas (See page 1 in the December 20, 2019 Print/PDF issue of West Shore Voice News)
Langford revokes occupancy permit and tenants must relocate (December 20, 2019)
Danbrook One building owner is shocked by engineering issues (December 20, 2019)
Danbrook One renters taking up options for temporary or permanent relocation (December 19, 2019)